CRETE - A Year in Review

HI SUPERSNACK.:smt039:smt039

Caught a glimpse of ya running west bound on I-64 into St Louie today.

 

JANUARY 2010

Well, the month of January turned out much better than I thought it would. I was looking for a repeat of last year and it just didn't happen that way. I was beginning to wonder when I couldn't get a load out of the house after Christmas, but I guess that was just the New Year jitters kicking in.

From that time on I have pretty much been running nonstop and getting all the miles that my log book would allow without the benefit of resets along the way. I keep running into that one 3hr day in my log that is causing me trouble. There really is no point in working a 3hr day and it would be the perfect time to get in that reset, but each time I try to do so I find myself under a load that forces me to drive that extra hour or two to either make a delivery or pickup on time. Then instead of having a fresh 70hr clock that allows me to run as I choose, I find myself fighting my log for the rest of the week and constantly having to shut down at the most inopportune times.

Each week this happens I just did what needed to be done and hoped that I would be able to clear the log the following week, but to no avail. Next time out I think I will make sure there are no hours available on that eighth day. It tends to work out for the best in the long run.

The runs have had an increased number of short hauls thrown into the mix, but the miles are adding up at the end of each week, so there is no real reason to complain. I've also been getting more runs with multiple drops associated with them. These trips use up a little more of the log and reduce the number of miles I can run in a week, but the extra drop pay helps to make up for the deficiency.

One of these multi drop load even found me in the one place I have been able to avoid for over three years now.



That run came to an end last week when I found myself looking at a load offer with a delivery to Farmingdale, NY. I didn't know exactly where it was at when I read it off my Qualcomm screen, but it just took a quick look at the map to realize I was headed to Long Island. I could have probably managed to wiggle out of this load, like a few other Long Island loads I had been offered in the past. I had hours to get there, but just barely and the prospects of getting stuck out there with no hours once unloaded was a strong possibility. Strong enough that I could have made an acceptable argument to have me pulled off the load. But it was good miles and with the drop pay and extra $100 that we get for running Long Island I decided to take my lumps. I was sure I wasn't going to enjoy it, but I was due.

I was dead on in the terms of my enjoyment level of the place. I had not been out there in 7-8 years and it was all that I remembered it to be and I will be perfectly content to wait another 8yrs before I make a return trip to that awful place. Although I guess its not the actual Island that I have the real problem with as much as what one has to deal with getting to and off the bloody thing.

The trip wasn't all that horrible because I rolled in at 5am to beat most of the traffic. But even at that time of the day things were starting to get a little crowed.

The biggest problem was the fact that I had to hold up for the night before some 250 miles away because my #### logbook required it. That in turn forced me to start driving right at midnight (logbook time) in order to get through the traffic before it got too bad, thus arriving at my first stop by 5am for a 7am delivery. If I had tried to show up closer to the actual delivery time I would have hit traffic and been late. A no win situation in either case.

The extremely early start of my day set the 14hr clock in motion and I now had to worry about making two deliveries and getting a load out and parked by 3pm. "Good luck with that one" was all I could think.

The first good sign of the day was that I actually found a parking spot directly across the street from my delivery point. I had also checked out Street View on Google maps the day before and determined that the directions I had been givin would have had me pointing in the wrong direction upon arrive, which would have resulted in a blind back. This would have been an impossible feat with the current conditions.

It was your classic NYC scenario. Two way street, very narrow with cars parked on both sides and a dock that was almost impossible to hit with a full sized tractor trailer set up and an endless stream of lunatic NY drivers whipping by.

I had to wait around for an hour or so before I was allowed to unload and that one hour saw a massive increase in traffic. It just so happened that I was on a side street that every person that lived on Long Island used as a short cut to get onto the LIE or Brooklyn Express way or what ever they call it. In any case it was a nightmare just getting into position to back up. I sat for a solid 6-7mins before I even got off the curb. That may not sound like a lot of time, but when your sitting there watching oncoming traffic through the windshield and backend traffic in the mirror, it's an eternity. And of course, that entire time leaves your mind free to wonder, "Just how in the hell am I going to be able to back up to a dock in this traffic".

The opening I need finally presented itself and I went for it. It was a gear jamming free for all to whip the truck into the street as fast as possible and then punch it into reverse fast enough to block of traffic and do my thing. I was aiming for one of those inside docks, the kind where they open the door and the truck backs into the building and by the time you get situated the truck is still blocking half of a lane while they unload you.

It was interesting to say the least and I was amazed at how idiotic people act around a truck in that town. Well, not really. It was exactly what I had expected to happen. At one point I was in a situation where I had to pull up from the dock to open the doors (couldn't be done before backing because bags of insulation would have fallen out in the street). This left my truck blocking about ¾ of the street and enough room for one car to get by with maybe an inch or two on each side. That was all these yahoos needed and they went for it. By the time I got back to the truck I had two cars in front of me, face to face from each direction and a line of cars behind each of them so that no one could move anywhere.

The unloading really didn't take all that long and I was soon on my way to the second drop in Farmingdale which was about 30 miles to the east and I pulled in about 3hrs ahead of my appointment time. I was really hoping they would unload me early. If so I might actually be able to get off the island before my 14hr clock expired. The guy didn't blink an eye at the early arrival time and simply told to me back up to the dock and he would send someone over to unload me. Good enough!

Ninety minutes later I put in my MT call and almost immediately got a load offer going to Minnesota (another 2 stop load) that picked up down the road a bit and it was suppose to be on a preloaded trailer and ready to go by noon. I would be there 11am, but even if I had to wait till noon to get it, I would still have enough time to get off the Island and a few miles down the road before shutting down at 3pm (the end of my 14hrs).

I was really hoping the trailer would be ready for me when I got there, but it wasn't and not only that, but I was told they were waiting on some product to show up before they would be finished and it would probability be closer to 2pm before it would be ready to go.

This was not good because there was absolutely no way I was going to get out of Dodge in the 60mins that would be left on my log by that time. I informed the shipper of my dire situation and he actually showed a bit of concern and said he would do everything possible to get me out sooner. Sooner turned out to be 1:30 and I figured I had just enough time to get out IF there were no traffic problems. If I hit heavy traffic going over the GWB I was simply going to run over my 14hr clock for the first time since I started driving a Crete truck. The only thing I had going for me is that it was early enough in the afternoon that I felt that I might just be able to pull it off.

I got out to the Long Island Expressway and pointed the truck west and found traffic to be very agreeable with nothing more than minor delays at an occasional on ramp and was starting to feel very good about my situation. Things continued to move along just great as I got onto the Cross Bronx and then everything came to a screeching halt. Oh Noooo! This could be big problems for me. I was at a dead stop in the middle of the afternoon and had no idea why I had this fine view through my windshield.



CB chatter later confirmed that road crews had decided this was the perfect time of the day to shut down two out of three lanes to repair a series of pot holes. Forty minutes later I broke through and it was clear sailing from that point on with the exception of a very minor slowdown while perched on top of the GWB. Great view. See picture above.

I was now in a very ugly situation. Almost no time on my clock and absolutely nowhere to park. I had two options, hang a left onto the Jersey turnpike (adding 20+ miles to my trip) so that I could spend the night in a service plaza (if I could find a parking spot) or head on down I-80 and hope to get lucky and find a spot wide enough to park. I've never parked along the interstate before, but I've seen many trucks do it in New Jersey in the past and tonight would find me doing the same. I actually found a pullout that got me a fair distance away from the interstate, and I was even joined by a few other trucks later in the evening. It was a safe enough parking spot, but it was certainly not what you could call a quiet, peaceful night.

Hopefully Crete will wait another 3+ years before sending me back to that wonderful place they call Long Island.

The rest of the week, and month for that matter went by without anything overly exciting happening. I continue to run out of hours on a daily basis and my miles are only limited by my logbook because Crete continues to keep me busy. I am experiencing little or no wait for loads once empty and I have yet to hit a single snow storm. I can't believe the luck I am having this year with the weather. Were ever the storms are hitting, I conveniently find myself elsewhere.

Oh, here's a picture from Utah taken earlier this month just because I think it's pretty.






FYI. This is the second "Week Four" I have posted. I got off to a bad start by counting the first few days of the year as "Week One" so that I could get onto my standard Monday thru Sunday thing. This resulted in me getting a little ahead of the calendar. So I'll call this week four to get back on track.



WEEK FOUR
Monday, January 25th through Sunday, January 31st
Miles include deadhead

Cleburne, TX to Farmingdale, NY (final leg)..................................903mi
Greenvale, NY to Minneapolis, MN...............................................1245mi
Inver Grove Hts, MN to Green Bay, WI.........................................290mi
Green Bay, OH to Zanesville, OH...................................................624mi
Lima, OH to Beaver Dam, WI (first leg)...........................................70mi

Total Paid Miles..............................................3132 Miles
Actual Miles..............................3205 Miles

3062mi x .44 =$1378.08 + $100 NYC pay + $60 stop pay = $1538.08